Walmart’s embarrassing bribery case: a reprise and then some

The Times’s examination reveals that Wal-Mart de Mexico was not the reluctant victim of a corrupt culture that insisted on bribes as the cost of doing business. Nor did it pay bribes merely to speed up routine approvals. Rather, Wal-Mart de Mexico was an aggressive and creative corrupter, offering large payoffs to get what the law otherwise prohibited. It used bribes to subvert democratic governance — public votes, open debates, transparent procedures. It used bribes to circumvent regulatory safeguards that protect Mexican citizens from unsafe construction. It used bribes to outflank rivals.

Wall Street pressures on corporations not only to make profits, but to grow profits every quarter, are the root cause of much food company corruption and corner-cutting.

But this report takes the investigations to another level. It documents how Walmart officials deliberately undermined efforts by the Mexican government to keep the historic area around the Teotihuacán pyramids free of commercial use.

Among other things, Walmart is the world’s largest supermarket chain. Its 10,000 stores in 27 countries sold $443.9 billion worth of goods—more than half from grocery sales—for net earnings of $15.8 billion in 2012.

As the Times’ article makes clear, the company resorted to whatever seemed necessary to get what it wanted. This particular case may be an anomaly but it could not have happened without a corporate culture deeply devoted to maintaining sales and profits.

I haven’t read all the resources you’ve provided, Marion (and thank you for doing so) but my immediate response is “of course” they did. Big corporations like Walmart, Monsanto, Nestlé and others often resort to tactics that would be identified as bullying by my 3rd grader. They use their financial weight to get what they want and don’t care about those that stand in their way.

http://www.letsmove.gov/accomplishments Penance

Maybe you can do a Q&A with Obamafoodorama about how Let’s Move should handle this Walmart news.

I’m sure many politicians would agree that taxes on corporations and the wealthy are too high particularly when the taxes cut into the amounts in bribes they receive. Oops, I mean campaign contributions.

No amount of tax relief on the wealthy is going to increase the wages that wage earners recieve. Labor, particularly farm labor, is undervalued. Meanwhile, the income gulf widens.